Title

Transnational Criminal Organizations and the Opioid Crisis to Be Examined at Helsinki Commission Briefing

Thursday, March 22, 2018

WASHINGTON—The Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe, also known as the Helsinki Commission, today announced the following briefing:

THE OPIOID CRISIS AND THE DARK WEB:
HOW TRANSNATIONAL CRIMINALS DEVASTATE U.S. COMMUNITIES

Wednesday, March 28, 2018
3:30 p.m.
Russell Senate Office Building
Room 485

Live Webcast: www.facebook.com/HelsinkiCommission

The opioid crisis is devastating the health and well-being of Americans. Following a dramatic increase in the use of prescription opioid painkillers in the late 1990s, the crisis now kills more than 40,000 people in the United States annually. Experts estimate that millions more abuse prescription opioids each year, many of whom later turn to heroin.

Transnational criminal organizations are one of the driving forces behind the intensity of the opioid crisis. By taking advantage of anonymous online marketplaces and legal delivery services, they can smuggle deadly drugs like fentanyl into the United States in a low-risk, high-reward way.

This briefing will trace the criminal networks that produce these drugs, market them on the dark web, and smuggle them into the United States to better understand how the public and private sectors can more effectively respond to this crisis and save thousands of American lives.

The following panelists are scheduled to participate:

  • Kemp Chester, Associate Director of the National Heroin Coordination Group, Office of National Drug Control Policy
  • John Clark, Vice President and Chief Security Officer, Global Security, Pfizer Inc.
  • Louise Shelley, Director, Terrorism, Transnational Crime, and Corruption Center (TraCCC); Professor, George Mason University
Media contact: 
Name: 
Stacy Hope
Email: 
csce[dot]press[at]mail[dot]house[dot]gov
Phone: 
202.225.1901
Relevant issues: 
Corruption
Economic Cooperation and Trade
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